Trajectory
![Illustration showing the trajectory of a bullet fired at an uphill target.](/Images/godic/202501/21/RiflemansRule.svg5835.png")
![Trajectories of a mass thrown at an angle of 70°:
without drag
with Stokes drag
with Newton drag](/Images/godic/202501/21/Inclinedthrow5835.gif")
![Trajectories of projectiles launched at different elevation angles but the same speed of 10 m/s in a vacuum and uniform downward gravity field of 10 m/s2. Points are at 0.05 s intervals and length of their tails is linearly proportional to their speed. t = time from launch, T = time of flight, R = range and H = highest point of trajectory (indicated with arrows).](/Images/godic/202501/21/Ideal_projectile_motion_for_different_angles.svg5835.png")
A trajectory or flight path is the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. The object might be a projectile or a satellite. For example. It can be an orbit—the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass. A trajectory can be described mathematically either by the geometry of the path, or as the position of the object over time.